College Basketball Odds - Wisconsin at Rutgers Game Preview

It hasn’t been the best start to the season for the Wisconsin Badgers, but this team has shown a lot of resiliency. Despite being riddled with injuries in the backcourt, Wisconsin was able to gut out a big win against Indiana on Tuesday night and move to 2-1 in Big Ten play. Ethan Happ has put the team on his back during this most recent stretch, and that will be who the Rutgers Scarlet Knights need to shut down in order to beat the Badgers on Friday night.

This war on the floor will go down Friday, January 5, 2018, at 7 p.m. ET at the Louis Brown Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. The game will be televised live on ESPN2. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Friday schedule.

Opening College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu

Rutgers will be looking for its first conference win in this game. The Scarlet Knights are 0-2 in conference, but have taken on arguably the two best teams in the Big Ten in Michigan State an Minnesota. They did knock off Seton Hall in non-conference play, yet laid an egg against Stony Brook and Hartford in their two most recent games.

The Scarlet Knights have not made the NCAA Tournament since all the way back in 1991, but things look like they might be starting to turn around under Steve Pikiell. This team hasn’t had a winning record in more than a decade, so improving to 16 or 17 wins this year would be quite the achievement.

Wisconsin has not been a great team to bet on this season. The Badgers are a one-man show under Happ, and most good teams have been able to have a lot of success against Wisconsin by focusing on stopping him. They are 6-8-1 ATS on the season and have covered three of their last four.

Player to Watch

With all of the injuries to Wisconsin’s guards, Ethan Happ has had to come up with some big performances to keep winning games. D’Mitrik Trice, Kobe King, and Brevin Pritzl all missed the game against Indiana, and Brad Davison played with a banged-up shoulder. That meant that he was going to have to carry the day for the Badgers, and boy did he ever.

Happ finished the game against the Hoosiers with 28 points and went 11-17 from the floor. Indiana just didn’t have an answer for his size and athleticism on either the offensive or defensive end. Happ also collected four steals and picked up two blocks too in a winning effort.

He now leads the team in points, rebounds, assists, and field goal percentage on the season.

Key Stat

Rutgers has played some excellent defensive basketball this season. The Scarlet Knights are sixth in the country in both points allowed and opponent field goal percentage and have suffocated some of the top offenses in the country.

When Rutgers took on Michigan State earlier this season, it showed just how good its defense was. The Scarlet Knights limited the Spartans to just 38.6 percent shooting from the floor, holding them to one of their worst offensive performances of the year.

Free College Basketball ATS Picks

If you love defensive games and low-scoring basketball, this will be the game for you. Wisconsin isn’t a bad shooting team, but plays at a snail’s pace. Rutgers won’t look to push the tempo either with a team that has not gotten great performances out of its guards this season. The Scarlet Knights are hitting just 41.7 percent from the floor and 29.2 percent from three-point range this season.

The total for this game may come out below 120 and the game should be close to a pick. Keep an eye on Wisconsin’s injury situation before this one and if those three guards are still out, go with Rutgers to get the win and the cover.

College Basketball Odds: Rutgers 63, Wisconsin 60

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